The Friends of Old Westview Cemetery, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., held its annual holiday gala at the Washington Navy Yard Catering and Conference Center on Dec 5.
The ballroom was decorated for the holiday season and the DJ kept guests on the floor all evening, dancing to the oldies.
Door prizes were given to lucky ticket holders. The prizes included several certificates from Giant Food Stores, Price-Rite Store, Chick-fil-A in Silver Spring, IHOP Restaurant. Miller’s Fur donated a certificate for one year of cleaning and storage. And the Marriott Wardman Hotel in downtown Washington donated a weekend getaway.
Organizers thanked family and friends who attended the gala and donated toward the cemetery’s restoration in 2015.
The group’s mission — and the top priority of founding President Rose Sturdivant Young — is to restore the Old Westview Cemetery located in Wadesboro.
Young’s vision began in January 2001, when her family returned to bury their mother, Ethel R. Sturdivant, in the family plot in the Old Westview Cemetery. The corporation marked its 15th anniversary on Jan. 22 and is continuing its efforts to restore and maintain the cemetery.
Members said the group’s accomplishments in 2015 include the hiring of a landscaper to maintain the cemetery through the fall and the hiring of a historian to submit the Westview Cemetery application for recognition on the National Register of Historic Places.
Westview Cemetery was listed on the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Register of Historic Places on April 29, 2015, according to the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources’ Office of Archives and History.
Westview friends are seeking assistance to maintain the cemetery. Any individual or group wishing to volunteer services to this nonprofit can contact Rose S. Young at 202-526-4030 and Oldwestview10@hotmail.com.
The Friends of Old Westview Cemetery have already begun planning the group’s 15th anniversary celebration for Dec. 10, 2016 in Washington.
Everyone pictured is from Wadesboro and has loved ones buried in Westview Cemetery. Seated from the right and front row: Beatrice Marshall, Mary Flakes Liles (Sime), Gracie Brown and Charlie Meachem. Seated from the left and back row: committee president Rose S. Young, Frankie Wilson, William Ratliff, Saxon Graham, James Leak, Fathia Thompson, Hazel Covert, Barbara Wallace, Vannie Kirby and Frank Meachem.